Short Analysis? Three major problems led to DAYS’ undoing after its unprecedented ratings’ climb:

1. No happy couples. Rafe and Sami were leading the way in happy couples who knew how to work their way through tough times and give fans a big emotional payoff at the end of their troubles. They were the last of the happy couples to go. Everyone else was cheating, lying, or returning to relationhips that had long played out. Sadly, they writers capped the ‘unhappily separate’ couples’ meme with Mickey Horton’s death. This show is all sadness and misery. If daytime is supposed to be about romance, someone forgot to remind the DAYs writers. Newlywed Phillip cheats on his wife. His wife is longing for another man. Daniel, who cheated with Chloe when she was with Lucas, is unaware that Chloe has cheated on him. Hope is losing her mind because Bo is bedding another of his ex’s – as he is prone to do. It’s all maddening.

2. No payoff for long term storylines. Not only did EJ Dimera kidnap his own daughter, torment her mother, and leave dozens of Salemites devastated by the believed death of Sydney – including his own children, he got away with it. The writers expected fans to sit back and watch the storyline, which culminated and Anna’s near death, and Nicole’s imprisonment, devolve into nothing but EJ’s proclamation of love and (let’s face it, horniness) for the woman he’d already sexually violated. No happy couples, a rapist hot for the woman he raped. Crimimal behavior ignored.

Writers were too quick to believe the fans who said that as long as Ejami (Sami and her rapist) were on screen together, they would watch and cheer them on, if it was only for a week, or weeks, or a few months. There are more fans who are opposed to a rape victim being in a relationship with her rapist. That shouldn’t be news to anyone, but apparently it is.

3. Too many new characters no one gives a damn about while vets languish on the backburner. Do I care that Stefano Dimera has yet another long lost child? Sure as hell don’t. What I’m wondering is how one man can have that much unprotected sex, that many long lost children and not have an STD. Were any of his children planned and born in the context of a loving marriage? I don’t care who Chad is, and I care less about his mother. Arianna and Gabrielle can hit the bricks. They can take all the relatively new characters with them, save Rafe – he’s the one bright spot for this hackneyed show. I’d sell them all for Lucas’ return and for Lucas to not only STOP being an apologist for the DiMeras, but to work with his mother to take the Dimera wealth and to bring Victor to his knees.

I could imagine a newly (temporarily) impoverished Victor wooing Maggie and figuring out who he is without his wealth. I can’t see Maggie, after loving a man like Mickey all of her adult life, falling for Victor as he currently is. By the time he regains his wealth, Maggie could help make him a better man. He’d no longer be an ally for Stefano, but a foe, one who works to undo the damage Stefano – who rebuilds his wealth, does to others. It would be the ultimate daytime battle of good vs. evil.